Tencent Backs Uzum as Uzbek Unicorn Hits $1.5B Valuation

Tashkent-based super-app Uzum, Uzbekistan’s first tech unicorn, has secured $65.5 million in a fresh funding round co-led by global giant Tencent and VR Capital, pushing its post-money valuation to $1.5 billion as it aggressively scales its e-commerce and fintech ecosystem across Central Asia.

The all-equity investment round represents a nearly 30% jump in valuation for the startup, which reached its historic $1.16 billion unicorn status in March of last year. FinSight Ventures, a U.S.-based venture firm, also participated in the round, highlighting growing international interest in Uzbekistan’s expanding digital economy.

The Evolution of a Central Asian Super-App

Launched in 2022, Uzum quickly established itself as a dominant force in Uzbekistan. The company began its journey with Uzum Market, a highly efficient e-commerce marketplace. Capitalizing on its rapid traction, the startup quickly integrated fintech services by offering debit cards and unsecured consumer lending, eventually expanding into the quick-commerce sector with its express food delivery service, Uzum Tezkor.

Explosive User Metrics and Financial Performance

Today, Uzum boasts an active monthly user base of over 17 million people. This figure represents nearly half of Uzbekistan’s entire adult population and roughly two-thirds of all smartphone users in the country. The platform currently supports 16,000 active merchants. During the first half of 2025, Uzum recorded a massive $250 million in gross merchandise value (GMV), marking a 1.5x year-over-year increase.

The startup’s financial arm, Uzum Bank, has seen similar exponential growth. Following the August launch of its co-branded Visa debit card featuring pre-approved credit limits, the bank has already issued 2 million cards and is on track to cross 5 million by the end of the year. Furthermore, Uzum’s unsecured lending business hit $200 million in financed volume in Q1, growing 3.4x compared to the same period last year. This rapid scaling helped Uzum posted $150 million in net income for fiscal year 2024, a 50% increase year-over-year.

Building Infrastructure from the Ground Up

Achieving this level of scale in a developing market required Uzum to build its physical and digital infrastructure entirely from scratch. Founder and CEO Djasur Djumaev attributes this hyper-growth to a strategic blend of deep localized knowledge and disciplined operational execution. Djumaev emphasizes that understanding local consumer behavior and cultural nuances, combined with global technical standards, allows the company to scale sustainably.

Uzum’s physical footprint is massive. The company has expanded its logistics infrastructure to 112,000 square meters, featuring a storage capacity of 1.1 million square feet. This network enables the company to process more than 200,000 orders per day. Additionally, the startup operates over 1,500 pickup points across 450 cities, towns, and villages throughout Uzbekistan, enabling reliable next-day delivery and serving as distribution hubs for Uzum Bank cards.

“Betting on local expertise and infrastructure in frontier markets gives you an advantage to then perform and scale your business very fast,” Djumaev explained in an interview.

Evolving Delivery Models and Global Partnerships

While Uzum initially relied on a fulfilled-by-operator model to handle e-commerce logistics, the platform is diversifying. The company is rolling out fulfillment-by-seller and delivery-by-seller options, aiming to route 20% to 30% of its total deliveries through these decentralized channels. This shift will help Uzum expand its catalog of stock-keeping units (SKUs), which has already grown to over 1.5 million—up from 600,000 SKUs in March 2024.

This outstanding growth trajectory is what caught the attention of Tencent. Nikolay Seleznev, Uzum’s Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer, noted that several quarters of discussions culminated in Tencent joining the cap table, driven by the startup’s consistently strong operational metrics.

The Future Roadmap: AI, Cross-Border Trade, and an IPO

Uzum has ambitious plans to expand its financial services. In September, the company intends to launch a dedicated deposit product alongside a long-term credit facility (with maturities exceeding 12 months) for B2C customers. The company also plans to deploy QR code payment processing to support its merchant network, scale its Visa debit card initiative, and introduce new digital tools designed specifically for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

On the e-commerce front, Uzum is developing value-added services to generate new revenue streams, including ad tech solutions. Artificial intelligence will also play an increasingly central role, with plans to embed AI across credit scoring algorithms, fraud detection systems, and personalized user experiences.

Furthermore, Uzum is opening its digital marketplace to international merchants, starting with sellers from China and Turkey. “We are expecting 10 to 15% of cross-border activity coming from these countries,” Seleznev stated.

With a massive workforce of over 12,000 employees spanning logistics, engineering, and product development, Uzum is eyeing a public listing in the medium term. To fuel this next phase of growth, the profitable company plans to raise a Series B round of $250 million to $300 million in the first half of 2026. This will build on the $137 million in total equity funding the startup has raised to date.